Jose de Wit
SUN Staff Writer
The question was not whether Escalante High School would win its Oct. 4 homecoming game against the Bataan Military Academy Sea Lions, but how they would win and by how much.
That much became clear less than five minutes into the game, when junior receiver Justin Atencio caught a pass from quarterback Andrew Garcia and carried the ball 50 yards to score the first touchdown for the Lobos.
From that first pass, Garcia was on a roll. He went on to break a school record with a total of six scoring passes.
“That was huge,” Escalante head coach Jesus Maes said.
Almost as huge, according to Maes, were his team’s three fourth-down conversions, two of them for 50 yards or more and one of them on Escalante’s own 20-yard line.
The 55-7 victory puts Escalante at 3-3 for the season.
The Lobos ran into trouble only once, toward the end of the second quarter, when the Sea Lions scored for the first and only time. Junior running back Taylor Andreu scored his team’s sole touchdown when he broke through Escalante’s defense with a run up the middle.
Clobbering Bataan Military Academy was a boost in confidence for the Lobos, who were coming off a 46-7 loss Sept. 27 against Carrizozo High School, Maes said.
Maes chalked up the victory partly to Bataan’s 0-3 record coming into the game, but also to his team playing tough defense.
“We were prepared,” Maes said. “We were just ready. That’s the bottom line.”
He expects the team will face a tougher game Saturday against Questa High School.
“They’re just as young as us,” Maes said, referring to both teams’ lack of seniors. “So I think we should be okay. But we’re expecting a tough game.”
Questa has a 3-4 record after a defeat by McCurdy School, also Oct. 4.